


once cast off

by acheforhim



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Don’t copy to another site, Fannibals Raise Hell, M/M, Post-Episode: s03e13 The Wrath of the Lamb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-14 00:01:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18041573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acheforhim/pseuds/acheforhim
Summary: Will has tried, many times, to picture what Hannibal must have been like as a child. Before what happened to Mischa—and after. The wild hurt in his eyes, still untamed. Evolving. Becoming.





	once cast off

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "Raising Hell" digital zine, part of the Ravage anthology campaign - find out more about it [here](https://lovecrimebooks.tumblr.com/post/183089003747/raise-hell-for-ravage). The kickstarter for the anthology ends on the 15th! Don't miss your chance to check it out - you can read more about it and find the link to the campaign on the blog.

Will is never going to tire of watching Hannibal.

There is a quiet grace about him, always, no matter what he does. A control over oneself obtained only through a lifetime of discipline. And no small amount of suffering.

Will has tried, many times, to picture what Hannibal must have been like as a child. Before what happened to Mischa—and after. The wild hurt in his eyes, still untamed. Evolving. Becoming.

“Do you ever—” he starts, then stops himself from saying something ridiculously insensitive. _Of course_ Hannibal would wish that his life had gone a different way – he’d want his sister alive and by his side, at the very least, even if he doesn’t necessarily regret who he has become and what he’s done after her passing.

Hannibal looks up from the cut of meat he’s seasoning, curious. “Yes, Will?”

Will crosses his arms over the island and props his chin on them, rethinks his question for a minute.

“Do you believe in redemption?” he asks in the end.

“For myself?” Hannibal asks calmly, hands working on the food. “Or for you?”

“I don’t want redemption,” Will says.

“And you think I do?”

Will shakes his head. “You don’t need saving from your sins,” he says. “You revel in them.”

Hannibal gives him a little smirk. “Ask me what you really meant to, darling.”

Will smiles in reply. “It was a stupid question,” he says. “I was just thinking about the past.”

“Anything in particular?”

Will considers this. “You must have been really young when… Everything happened,” he says, inwardly wincing at himself for the phrasing. “It must have been difficult to have your innocence be ripped away so early.”

“I was never an innocent,” Hannibal says. He doesn’t meet Will’s gaze.

Is that how he sees himself? A monster in the making, even before all the horrors?

“You never were, or you don’t remember that time?”

Hannibal hesitates. “The latter,” he admits. “I am aware that this particular teacup will never come together. I waste no time putting it together in my mind.”

“Anymore.”

Hannibal gives him a look that says, _Clever boy_. “Anymore,” he confirms.

“No use trying to return to something you can never be again.”

Hannibal nods, and they fall quiet again.

Will is content just to watch him.

**Author's Note:**

> “Like the rest, we shall return to claim our bodies,  
> but never again to wear them-wrong it is  
> for a man to have again what he once cast off.”
> 
> Inferno, Canto XIII (103-105), translated by Mark Musa
> 
> please consider [retweeting](https://twitter.com/ache4him/status/1114520865176158210) or [reblogging](https://acheforhim-fic.tumblr.com/post/183316957819/fic-once-cast-off) if you enjoyed ♥


End file.
